Finally ready for breeding!

i will be attempting to breed my balls for the first time this year so im gonna need some help!

i have a couple females that are old enough(3 years) and heavy enough(1600g+) and a couple males that are for sure ready to go.

so heres the question:

i have a female pastel that i bought a couple months ago and wasnt planning on breeding her until next year but she eats like a champ, is over a year old and over 1200 grams.

think she is ready?

any other advice is welcome!

thanks in advance!

I dunno... her weight sounds pretty low for breeding. I bred Bela, my '04, last year at 1800g, and even still if she were much lower than that I was not going to.

I would say she is definetly not ready. I would give her another season.

you can generally go by 1500 grams average, or 500 grams per ft. some will breed lower, some will not. age is a factor too. alot of people have luck with girls in their 3rd,4th winter.


keep feeding her until around thanksgiving or x-mas, then see where she is at.

one things for sure, you can't force the girls to lay good eggs!!:D


vaughn

ya im thinking if i wait until next year i may get a bigger clutch size and there may be less health risk for her but i want super pastels sooo bad.


some people i have talked to say go for it but to me she isnt just a breeder and i dont want to put her at risk.

but is it possible to successfully breed a female with her stats??

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Originally Posted by bigballs

ya im thinking if i wait until next year i may get a bigger clutch size and there may be less health risk for her but i want super pastels sooo bad.


some people i have talked to say go for it but to me she isnt just a breeder and i dont want to put her at risk.

but is it possible to successfully breed a female with her stats??

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I agree with you 100%. "she isn't just a breeder". You will likely get a bigger clutch size, which means a better chance at your supers :carrot: if you wait another season. I share your desire for that morph as well.

As far as her being able to, noone can tell you for sure about that. I don't think she will suffer any damage if you try. She either will or won't produce eggs. She may get stressed out if the male is trying to breed and she isn't ready. I would keep them together for short periods of time. Just so its not too taxing on her if she isn't ready.

ya i just fed her yesterday and took a good look at her and had to realize that she is way to small. sure she is 1200g but she just turned one year old last month. i guess ill giver her another year.


thanks guys!

1500 grams is a minimum for me. But even at that weight if they are too young they aren't gonna take. she may go late winter(possible but unlikely) but next year she should be rockin.

Heres my question... is 1200g's at a yr old considered an overweight ball? Im sure we can all do the math ... but its 100g's/month... I have 5 1yr olds and my biggest is 700grams... Obviously you can easily get them that big in a year but is that healthy?

I have an 03 female i didnt breed her till last year. Shes always been a good eater. She was alittle over 2100gm. Her clutch weighed 635gm 7 eggs Laid on 7/16/07. Shes at 2200gm now. Started eating day after i took eggs away. One med/large rat a week no over feeding her. I know not every ball is the same. But so far from what ive seen with my breeders the bigger they are the faster they come back after breeding. Better to wait another year than to find out she wasnt ready the hard way. Bad eggs or something worse. Try breeding her. It doesnt take and she goes off feed looses weight then your waiting longer for her to breed again. Also even if she is 1500gm she still could be to small. 1500gm but 6 feet long then would be to small. 1200 to big for a year old ball. If you were feeding once a week then she grew like she should. If you were power feeding her to get her up to size then she might be over weight. I have some that have been up to 1300gm in one year. But i have one,another 03 that is only like 950gm. She eats every week never missed a meal. Just isnt getting that big. So depends on the snake and how much your feeding. Sorry so long

You deffinately do not want to breed her at one year. Too young even if she is the appropriate size. And does sound overweight. An overweight snake will throw you lots of slugs, from what I hear.

AMA... the largest BP doesnt need anything more than a small rat... its no surprise that your snakes are bouncing back faster its bc your prey size is much bigger than needed and in the long run will put your BP overweight (if its not already)

My rule for breeding is that if you have any doubt, then just wait. Why risk it? So maybe your project takes a year longer - it'll be worth it to have a strong healthy female that will produce for years afterwards as opposed to breeding, too young. Getting poor clutch size and jeopardizing her health.

So yeah, wait another year.

i never powerfeed any of my animals. she is not overweight and she is very healthy. i dont know how many snakes you guys own but once you have a few females that you have been growing up you'll see that they grow at different rates even on the same feeding schedule.

for example i bought two females from the same clutch and within a year one was 1200g and the other was only 600g.
i'll post pics sooner or later so you guys can judge for yourself.

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Originally Posted by westcoastjungle

1500 grams is a minimum for me. But even at that weight if they are too young they aren't gonna take. she may go late winter(possible but unlikely) but next year she should be rockin.

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ya i was thinking that at this young she wouldnt even produce eggs and even if she did it may be only one. better to wait until next year when shes around 2000g!(hopefully;) )

Big Balls - what sized prey are you feeding? 1 rat per week? ... I wish my girls would put on weight like yours... I got 4 females that are 06's and my largest is only 700g's and none of them have never missed a meal.

my big girls never miss their meals: one small rat per week.

Theres the difference... For the majority of the time i was feeding weanlings(30-45gs) and then my feeder store only had small rats so I was feeding them those for awhile (month or two) but once they were gone I went back to weanlings... My plan was to feed them weanlings till they were 1000g's and then move up to small rats... I got about 50 more frozen weanlings and I think after that I'm going to make the jump to small rats for good. Anyone have a clue how long frozen rats are good for? I have 3 babies who are feeding on rat pups right now and obviously down the road theyll need to be bumped up... I was thinking bout usuing up 25 of the weanlings on the older ones and making the switch sooner and saving the other 25 for my 07's but obv dont want to feed them bad rats. Any advice?

Frozen rats should be good for approx. 6 months or so, as long as they're sealed properly. Possibly longer if you've got them vacuum sealed..

As far as feeder size, there's a really good thread on that subject that I just happened to start. There's a pretty good breakdown of meal size based on your BP's weight in there. Here's the thread: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=50548

well i dont go by weight of the rat i just eyeball the rat's girth and make sure that it is equal to or a little less than my bp's thickest part. i never "lump" the animals i just feed them properly and they grow well.

I've fed mice that I've had for over a year, though they were vaccum sealed. There were no noticable consequences from it; the snakes didn't care and thrived, and continued to grow just fin. But once opened, I'd treat them like you would frozen meat, so maybe good several months...

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Originally Posted by bigballs

ii dont know how many snakes you guys own but once you have a few females that you have been growing up you'll see that they grow at different rates even on the same feeding schedule.

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About 20 best guess without going in and counting.

Remember too that all ball pythons have different rates of growth. 100 grams a month was not unusual for me when I was feeding two appropriately sized mice every week. I also have a male that was about 1200 grams at a year old on 1 small rat a week (I define my smalls as 4-5 week olds, 40-50 grams). And then I have some that are smaller.


As for breeding, I have three girls that are '05's all over 1500 grams. Two I'm still not sure yet if I'll breed and may wait another year, because they are long and lean, and I want them to be a bit bigger. Will I feed more to accomplish that? Nope. But I'll re-evaluate them when it comes closer to time to breed and make a decision at that time.